Shào yí wài zhuàn 少儀外傳
External Tradition on the Shàoyí by 呂祖謙 (Lǚ Zǔqiān, zì Bógōng 伯恭, hào Dōnglái xiānsheng 東萊先生, 1137–1181, 宋)
About the work
A two-juan family-school instructional manual by Lǚ Zǔqiān, taking its title from the Shào yí 少儀 chapter of the Lǐjì (the locus classicus for the rituals of childhood), but in substance treating much beyond sǎ sǎo jìn tuì (sweeping and clearing, advance and retreat) — gathering exemplary words and deeds of the xiānzhé on lì shēn xíng jǐ (self-conduct), yìng shì jū guān (responding to affairs and holding office). The work is therefore external to the Shào yí’s strict ritual scope — paralleling Hán Yīng 韓嬰’s Hán shī wàizhuàn in its conventional positioning of wài zhuàn as supplementary expansion. The format is anthological-cum-discursive, drawing on classical and historical sources. Substantively it complements the jiāshì manuals of Lǚ Běnzhōng (Tóngméng xùn, KR3a0037) and Yuán Cǎi (Yuánshì shì fàn, KR3a0040), and is one of the two principal Lǚjiā family-school texts. The work was little known after the Sòng — the SKQS editors note that Zhū Yízūn’s Jīng yì kǎo lists it as “wèi jiàn” (not seen) — and was recovered through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preservation. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn also preserves a separate work titled Biàn zhì lù 辨志錄 in 2 juan attributed to Lǚ Zǔqiān; the SKQS editors determined it to be the same work under a different title.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that the Shào yí wài zhuàn in two juan was composed by Lǚ Zǔqiān of the Sòng. Zǔqiān’s Gǔ Zhōu yì has been catalogued elsewhere. This book has at the close a colophon by Yúngǔ Hú Yánqǐ 雲谷胡巖起 and a postface by his younger brother Zǔjiǎn. Tán Yuányóu 譚元猷 of Dānyáng 丹陽 once printed it at the academy. Long-since dispersed, with no current printing — so Zhū Yízūn’s Jīng yì kǎo notes “not seen”. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserves it head and tail complete with no errors. We have here arranged it in two juan to restore the old form.
The book was made for the instruction of the young; it takes its name from the Lǐjì’s Shào yí. But the middle is mixed with citation of the worthies’ upright conduct and noble words, also touching on lìshēn xíngjǐ and yìngshì jūguān — what it covers is rich, not exclusively centring on the lesser detail of sǎsǎo jìntuì; hence the title wài zhuàn, just as Hán Yīng cited matter to gloss the Shī and titled it wài zhuàn. Lǚ Běnzhōng’s old Tóngméng xùn has all his own statements of gàojiè; this book gathers from old writings and is closer in style to Zhūzǐ’s Xiǎo xué. The Xiǎo xué is widely circulated; Tóngméng xùn also has a printing; this book alone has fallen into obscurity. Whether a book is transmitted or not is also a matter of fortune — one cannot use it as a measure of merit.
The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn separately records a Biàn zhì lù in two juan, also titled “Lǚ Zǔqiān composed”. The text is identical with this. Apparently a single book under two names; the compiler did not come from one hand and so was double-recorded. We here append the note and do not repeat the recording, nor preserve a separate entry.
[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅.
Abstract
The Shào yí wài zhuàn is one of two major Lǚ Zǔqiān family-instructional works (together with the materials gathered into Lìzé lùn shuō jí lù, KR3a0052). Composition window: bracketed by Lǚ Zǔqiān’s working life — from his Lóngxīng 1 (1163) jìnshì through to his death in 1181. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1163–1181.
The dual-title issue (Shào yí wài zhuàn vs. Biàn zhì lù) — both titles preserved by the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn on the same text — is a clean case of a single Sòng Rújiā work being catalogued twice in the early-Míng compilation under different titles. The SKQS editors’ methodological care in identifying the duplication and removing one record is worth noting.
The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; Jīng yì kǎo (notes “not seen”); Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language secondary literature located.
- The work is briefly noted in studies of Sòng family-instruction and within Lǚ Zǔqiān-specific scholarship.
Other points of interest
The work’s near-loss between the Sòng and the SKQS — and its fortunate preservation through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — is one of several cases where the SKQS editors recovered a Lǚ-school text that had fallen into obscurity. The Wùzhōu / Jīnhuá xuépài tradition’s eclipse by the Mǐn / Zhū Xī mainstream after the Southern Sòng accounts for the relative neglect.
Links
- Sòng shǐ j. 434 (Lǚ Zǔqiān zhuàn).
- Yǒnglè dàdiǎn (the preserving source).
- Kyoto Zinbun, Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào
- Wikidata